Last November, we reported that Governor Hochul signed a New York State law mandating that most employers provide a retirement plan option for employees. See details about the New York State Secure Choice Savings Plan (Secure Choice) at https://acsi-ny.com/more-about-mandatory-retirement-plans-and-automatic-enrollment-new-yorks-mandatory-program/.
Several other States have passed similar laws in recent years.
It was our expectation that the NYS mandate likely would go into effect in 2022, although we anticipated it would be late this year. However, after having its first meeting to work on the Secure Choice requirements in January 2022, the Secure Choice Board did not have another meeting until late September.
The pace of the Secure Choice Program implementation has been glacial. You can see what little has been done by checking out the Board’s website: https://www.securechoice.ny.gov/board-meetings.htm.
At the most recent meeting (i.e., meeting number 2 of the Board in late September 2022), very little was accomplished. We are awaiting substantial guidance about many aspects of the Secure Choice Program, including the automatic enrollment process and how opt-out occurs, who is/are the approved IRA provider(s), what qualifies as an employer-sponsored retirement plan that exempts an employer from Secure Choice, etc.
Our best guess is that it will be late 2023, at the earliest, before we know the most important details about the NYS Secure Choice Program.
We will continue to monitor the rules being established by the Secure Choice Board, and we will provide future updates. In the interim, to learn more about retirement plan options, contact mbrand@acsi-ny.com or check-out www.acsi-ny.com.
